Funds for Syria
Brazil announces its largest ever cash donation to conflict victims at donor conference; amount raised below target set by UN
Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary General, addresses the opening plenary at the Supporting Syria and the Region conference. BACKGROUND The Supporting Syria and the Region conference is taking place in London, today on 4 February 2016. It brings together world leaders in a bid to raise the money needed to help the millions of people whose lives have been torn apart by the devastating civil war in Syria. Syria is the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis. Billions of dollars in international aid are needed to support people caught up in the conflict. The UK, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, and the United Nations are co-hosting the conference to raise significant new funding to meet the immediate and longer-term needs of those affected. The conference is also setting ambitious goals on education and economic opportunities to transform the lives of refugees caught up in the Syrian crisis – and to support the countries hosting them. This event alone cannot solve all these problems. Ultimately a political solution is necessary to bring the Syrian conflict to an end. FREE-TO-USE PHOTO This image is in the public domain and free-to-use, as long as you credit the source as: Adam Brown/Crown Copyright
At a meeting held in London today, February 4, dozens of countries raised nearly US$6 billion in donations to help the reconstruction of Syria and assist the victims of the conflict over the course of 2016, according to preliminary statements by British Prime Minister David Cameron. Another US$4 billion has been pledged by 2020. This is the largest announcement of donations ever made in a single day to alleviate a humanitarian crisis, but it was still below the target of US$8.9 billion set by OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) for this year based on assessments on the extent of the crisis.
Brazil announced a donation of US$1.3 million via UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) and it also committed to send the equivalent of US$1.85 million in rice. Last year, in a similar process, the country said it would be willing to send US$5 million in food, but the donation was never made, explained the Foreign Ministry by telephone to Conectas, due to the lack of available means of transport to the region.
The new donation signals a growing commitment by the federal government to the crisis, although the total amount is still significantly lower than what was pledged by countries with a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) similar to Brazil’s. Two examples are Italy, which has donated nearly US$29 million since 2013, and Canada, which has given US$204 million, according to official data from OCHA.
“Two points need to be highlighted: the first is the attendance by the Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira at the conference; the second is the announcement of the new donation, the largest made to date by the Brazilian government in this forum to the victims in Syria,” said Camila Asano, coordinator of Foreign Policy at Conectas. “These are two positive signs that Brazil wants to be an active part of the solution to the conflict,” she added.
The war in Syria, which began in 2011 after the repression of protests against President Bashar Al-Assad, has already claimed at least 250,000 lives and created 4.2 million refugees, according to the United Nations – making it the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era.
According to a statement published by more than 90 humanitarian and human rights organizations from around the world the day before the conference in London, among them Conectas, an average of 50 Syrian families have left their homes every hour of every day since the conflict began. The group of organizations also informed that 13.5 million people in the country are now dependent on emergency aid.
Click here to read the joint statement by the organizations.
Politics and funding
Brazil has played an important role taking in Syrian refugees through its policy of issuing humanitarian visas that began in 2013 and was renewed for two more years in September 2015. According to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Relations on Wednesday, February 3, more than two thousand Syrians have already been issued these visas.
According to Camila Asano, Brazil should eliminate entirely all visa requirements for Syrians and it could also create a resettlement policy supportive of the refugees – a possibility already raised by the Ministry of Justice.
“Today, the humanitarian visa only benefits families who can pay for a flight to Brazil, which is quite expensive, and this limits the scope of the policy,” she said. “We need to be more bold and purposeful. A supportive resettlement policy, for example, could provide transport for refugee families who are dependent on humanitarian aid.”
